Somna

I thought Piercing weapons were supposed to have the capability to ignore some DT.

Sure, why not. A lot of this is from memory though. Arcane Spells Level 1 Arcane Spells Level 2 Arcane Spells Level 3 Arcane Spells Level 4 Arcane Spells Level 5 Arcane Spells Level 6 Arcane Spells Level 7 Arcane Spells Level 8 Arcane Spells Level 9 Arcane Spells Level 10

I wonder how many people are going to make a chanter named Dovahkiin now? =X

Given the "Cipher in fullplate using short range willpower attacks" that Josh commented, I'm expecting that there may be reasons for the class to get in close. They may be required to be within a close range to affect the mental state of souls. As for a unique mechanic, I was thinking slightly similarly -- their abilities depend on the number of souls near them; the more souls in range of their abilities, the more effective their abilities are. They don't necessarily have to affect everything with the ability though.

Yeah, that's why I dropped that from consideration.

My bad. Was just the first or two words that popped to mind because of Book of Exalted Deeds. Torments was the other one.

I think this goes back to the "mortification of the flesh" aspect of the monks. While I'm not sure how "true" this aspect is to all monks, I do know that some monks IRL actually do this. Shaolin monks as well as Christian monks train their bodies/self-flagellate to reach a higher spiritual level. I had the same experience with regards to the term "Wounds". It doesn't really imply a transformation or impulse transfer effect. Shrug. Not that it matters. What if it was Stigmata?

This is a ridiculously good idea. One question though - what happens if you have enough wounds to kill you in the next few seconds/round but you manage to finish off your opponents and combat right before wound damage would be applied and you'd die. Does the wound system automatically reset itself at the end of combat with or without you taking the damage from it? For me it does have the virtue of making the Monk class at least worth trying. But it may also depend on how well the unarmed Monk performs on the attack. Fighters will benefit from the versatility of choosing different tools for different enemies. How will the Monks fare in this regard? Perhaps they will only be optimal for unarmed (bludgeoning) combat against certain foes? There could easily be feats that allow them flexibility in damage types, or class abilities -- at least some of the archetypes of the Pathfinder monk did -- so that's probably a non-issue.

I wouldn't make the assumption that there is an "aggro" system. Otherwise it would be possible to wall one character off from the mobs and take the rest out with ease.

What new update? There's another one expected next week.

There has to be. You couldn't save in combat.

A clear and understandable "buffs" window, if they are going to be used en masse. Being able to actually knock opponents into traps -- example, bullrushing an opponent into a web trap or using a wind spell to knock opponents into a fireball trap.

It may be more illustrative to take more thought out scenarios to back up the thought that Stealth isn't always a good choice. So far, there is: 1 Timer-based scenario 1 Location based scenario However, there is the glaring problem that we really need more information. It's almost like they need to also give us their aborted ideas to play with as well.

Yeah, I get that. I was just trying to make sure you were aware of his stances on those things. The way information gets kicked up into a tornado around this place, it's easy to miss stuff, I think it's good to consider reasonable ways to eliminate scenarios in which save-scumming easily turns things into an extremely inefficient chore. However, I don't think they're waging war on save-scumming or anything. Basically, if you can implement something like lockpicking, for example, in such a way that the provided systems (saving anywhere) don't encourage the grueling circumvention of limitations (using your save to re-roll dice for an hour until you pick the lock), then by all means, do so. But, I think the benefits of being able to save anywhere still greatly outweigh the benefits of fully-eliminating the need and/or possibility to save-scum. Basically, it's better for everyone for the process of lockpicking to never even be able to take an hour than it is for it to possibly do so. And yeah, it's highly tied to chance calculation. But they're not all bad. I could have sworn that the lockpicking example was: a) If you were close but not close enough, it would just use more lockpicks. b) If you aren't close at all, it just auto-fails.

A simple diplomacy cost could be restricted environment access. Making a deal with the bandits? Then you're not going into their treasure cache, unless you want to waste the money you just gave them.

Like: Sneak past enemies for 50xp OR Fight enemies for 50xp Nice. You have just made avoiding combat much more attractive. Not to mention that any other creatures (not part of an objective) can still, will and should be avoided. But this is great for those who hate combat. Really, it is. Your TL;DR filter is broken. That was part of his point on why throwing in a name of "objective XP" is bad.

I know I don't mind infinite ammo, but I would like it if that only occurred with the help of magic. For example, a basic spell or ability that could be used once in a while, or a magical quiver that provided a specific type of ammo in endless quantities.

Not true. Josh has expressed full advocacy of critical hits, or they would've been removed. Also, not only are misses still being considered as a possibility, but, either way, glancing blows/misses are still percentage-chance based. u_u... Mmm, that's true. I was thinking more of out of combat situations like the mentioned chest opening example or controlled skill challenges, where it's trivial to just save, try, and reload.

Ehm, no... they just get paid A LOAN (goal completion, or usually, a month work), instead of PER HOUR (per kill). Do you have a great post on how loans are bad and everyone should be paid by the hour or everyone stops working? I would love to read it... I'm pretty sure you mean a pay check for a pay period. However how much you recieve is still determed by how much work you did. Worker A builds a wall and it takes him 32 hours of work to do. Worker B builds a wall thats bigger and it takes him 40 hours to do so. Guess who got paid more? I think my example flew over most people... so let's say it clearly... You aren't paid PER HOUR. You don't get each hour amount of money donated at your account (per kill). At the end of month your effort is set into money. Once. That's your loan. Or in this case, that would be "quest-XP". If you spend 32 hours you get less quest XP than 40 hours, indeed. That's why bigger missions give bigger rewards. Or more difficult ones give bigger rewards. But there's no need to instead of pay once at the end of that 32 hour pay the employee 32 seperate times. Because otherwise he stops working. Since that gives "no reward"... Just nitpicking, but loan for most people means a debt. It sounds like you're thinking of salary, but then that makes your comparison not make much sense either...

What if your diplomatic solution requires that you bribe an official with 10,000 zorkmids? Again, resources consumed. Wouldn't that make combat obviously the better choice and what the dev's said they don't want? Depends on the rewards you get. Although why you want to initiate combat with an official and not except potentially dangerous consequences... A dimplomatic solution does not mean you are talking to a diplomat. If I talk an angry drunk down that is a diplomatic solution with someone who may or may not be an offical Your point would make a lot more sense if you actually kept to the same examples provided instead of constantly spinning off different ones when responded to. Random orc parties are not automatically composed of honorable orcs and bribing officials does not suddenly turn into talking down an angry drunk.

What if your diplomatic solution requires that you bribe an official with 10,000 zorkmids? Again, resources consumed. Wouldn't that make combat obviously the better choice and what the dev's said they don't want? Depends on the rewards you get. Although why you want to initiate combat with an official and not except potentially dangerous consequences...

well you can do this in mmo's too but I don't recall seeing players standing around in the same spot for hours on end swatitng demons. If it is something that you would do it sounds like the problem is with you and not the game. And should you do that and it makes the devs angry then again that sounds like the problem is with them for getting butt hurt over someones choice of playstyle. People don't normally do that in MMOs after Everquest because it's not designed to be efficient. There are some exceptions (as FFXI Abyssea XP farming comes to mind), but outside of the really old MMOs, camping a specific set of spawns is a tactic that hasn't been an efficient source of XP in a long time. No you should totally be able to walk up and high fives them and bypass them by talking to them " hey guys whats up. Oh you're hunting elves again? Sweet I was about to get some myself so I can sow their skin into my new coat to match yours. Good hunting guys" And that should be perfectly viable to do. However why should that grant the same Exp so someone who fought throught the 10 orcs you ran into that nearly killed Vogo Frog master and made me use two rare healing potions? The avoidance of risk is a reward in itself. Its the reason people sneak and negotiate. The best way to handle the situation is to give ~800 Exp for "dealing with the orc band" and 150~200 spread among the band. There would be no benifet in talking and then killing which is what has Prime's panties in a twist. You'd still get a huge chunk of the total experience you could have gotten from the encounter. And with how big the game is going to be there should be more then enough encounters to hit cap with out needing those bits here and there that your risk avoiding lost you As much as I like non-combat approaches, I don't think it makes sense to have a diplomatic option on a group that is completely hostile to you. One thing I don't like about PnP diplomacy is that, by rules as written, it is possible to turn people who want to tear you into kibble into your friends solely with use of the Diplomacy skill and feats. There should be a reason the random orc party will want to talk to you in the first place before that option should even be made available.

Huh. So basically, unless it is Path of Iron, we can expect percentile chances to be out the window. Percentile chances of what? Nobody at Obsidian has remotely clearly defined any skills that will be present in P:E or how they will function mechanically. The example was Sawyer's explanation/retort as to why players of NV couldn't shoot locks or blow up doors rather than pick the lock or find a key. Percentile chance attached to a beneficial result -- probably safe to assume he doesn't want that because of save scumming possibilities.

Huh. So basically, unless it is Path of Iron, we can expect percentile chances to be out the window.

Off topic, but every time someone posts one of those trope links, I get lost forever. Thanks. I don't think the zombie variety can top the number of tropes out there. :D